Rafa’s wardrobe malfunction!

Monte Carlo: Rafael Nadal is battling a wardrobe malfunction that has forced him to alter his serving routine at this week’s Monte Carlo Masters.

When he has failed with his first serve, Nadal has had to ask for another ball rather than plucking one from his shorts, because he has been experiencing problems with the pockets.

“The ball comes out of the bottom of them and gets in the way,” the Spaniard said on Thursday, after beating Italy’s Andreas Seppi to reach the quarter finals.

“We’ll try to sort it out for the next tournaments, but here it won’t be possible. When you have been doing something the same way for so many years, when there is a change you have to think about it and it makes things a bit more difficult. But it’s better to do it that way than have the ball popping out of the bottom of your shorts which is quite uncomfortable.”

Earlier, during his second round match against Teymuraz Gabashvili, the Spaniard received a time violation and made his displeasure be known to the chair umpire Pascal Maria.

After Gabashvili hit a winner into the open court after a 24-shot rally, Nadal took his time to catch his breath before serving down break point, and Maria issued Nadal his second time violation of the match.

As Nadal walked back to his bench, he wagged his finger at the chair umpire.